Nokia Boss Stephen Elop Is “Bookies” Favourite To Take Microsoft CEO Position

Speculation about who will be next to take the position of CEO at Microsoft is rife. No one really has a definite answer so today we look to the “bookies” to see what the odds are. Bookies normally do quite well at narrowing down the candidates because they have insider information to ensure they aren’t caught out with unexpected losses. Ladbrokes seems to think that the current favourite candidate to take over as CEO of Microsoft is Nokia’s Stephen Elop as his odds are just 5 to 1.

Microsoft’s Kevin Turner is running at 6 to 1, former Windows boss Steve Sinofsky at 8 to 1 and Microsoft’s Executive Vice President Julie Larson Green is also an 8 to 1 shot. Other big name inclusions include Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Meyer who is a 33 to 1 shot and Microsoft’s chairman Bill Gates who is a 50 to 1 shot. If you think Apple’s CEO Tim Cook would make a huge unlikely move to Microsoft then the odds on that return pretty well at 100 to 1.

Microsoft’s Chairman Bill Gates has already publicly stated he has no intention to return as the CEO as Gates has been retired from the company since 2000, when Steve Ballmer took over.

Stephen Elop is Nokia’s CEO and the first non-Finn to be named as CEO of the big Finnish company. Canadian Stephen Elop became quite famous for his “Burning Platform” internal memo that was leaked in 2010 that likened Nokia’s position in the mobile market to a person standing on a burning oil platform. Since that announcement Nokia has discontinued its in-house Symbian mobile OS and moved more or less exclusively to Windows Phone and has developed extremely close relations with Microsoft.

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